


Rumour Has It

by jepifish



Series: Ferdithea Angst [3]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Academy phase, Ferdinand's temper is finally unleashed, Gen, Ginger vs Ginger, Loose Canon, Pre-Timeskip, Rivalry, Swearing, Sylvain gets the beat down he deserves, minor depiction of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23654152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jepifish/pseuds/jepifish
Summary: Sylvain smirked at Ferdinand with a gloating pride despite being held down on his knees by Leonie. Although he had just been publicly threatened, he seemed entirely unbothered. As if he revelled in riling Ferdinand up at Dorothea’s expense. After all, everyone knew about their not-relationship: it was the talk of the entire school – they had been taking tea regularly together for weeks, when suddenly they weren’t. Rumours had it that the last time they had been seen together Dorothea was running out of Ferdinand’s room in tears.Well, fuck rumours, Hilda thought to herself.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault & Hilda Valentine Goneril, Dorothea Arnault & Leonie Pinelli, Dorothea Arnault & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Dorothea Arnault/Sylvain Jose Gautier, Ferdinand von Aegir & Dorothea Arnault, Ferdinand von Aegir & Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, Ferdinand von Aegir & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Ferdinand von Aegir/Dorothea Arnault, Hilda Valentine Goneril & Leonie Pinelli
Series: Ferdithea Angst [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668373
Comments: 9
Kudos: 91





	Rumour Has It

A mob of excited students had gathered in the pit of the training grounds, encircling the two figures, both lancers, that were engaged in battle. The only sounds that could be heard were that of wooden training lances banging heavily against each other in a violent fervour, the laboured breathing of the two lancers who refused to relent to each other, and the strained grunts whenever a blow was successfully landed upon the opponent. Despite their excitement, the audience remained silent, the tension between the two opponents was so palpable it would feel criminal to spoil it with a cheer or a boo.

Hilda pushed her away through the crowd in order to see what all the fuss was about. It was rare for her to ever enter the training grounds by choice, but she had heard an impossible rumour: Ferdinand and Sylvain were duking it out. She snorted in glee as she confirmed the rumours with her very own eyes. Ferdinand, annoyingly proper and polite, never one to break the rules, versus Sylvain, as lazy as she was in her training and flippant in every regard, were sparring.

From the corner of her eye, she caught Leonie watching the two "inferior gingers" (as Leonie liked to call them) with a smirk of bemusement on her face. Hilda threaded her way through the crowd towards Leonie and tapped her on the arm to get her attention.

“What the hell is going on here, Leo?” Hilda whispered as not to disturb the tension that was so thick, she would need her axe to cut through it.

The wannabe mercenary smirked, bending down to whisper into Hilda’s ear, “Sylvain challenged Ferdinand to a friendly, would you believe it? Freaking Sylvain!”

Hilda looked back to the boys still fighting each other, practically on equal footing, drenched in so much sweat that their clothes clung to their skin, “A friendly? Are you sure? This looks way more like a fight to the death than just a light spar.”

“Uh-huh,” Leonie remarked cocking her head to the pit, “They’ve been at it for _thirty_ minutes now.”

“Thirty minutes?!” Hilda’s jaw gaped wide open that she heard it click, “They really are trying to kill each other! What started all of this anyway, its not like Sylvain to challenge someone, he’s so lazy and too busy trying to sleep with everything that moves. Besides, they don’t even know each other that well.”

Leonie shrugged, “Beats me, all I know is that Ferdinand looks mighty pissed, and that he’s gonna lose.”

Hilda wrinkled her nose in disagreement. There was no way Ferdinand would lose to someone like Sylvain. Yeah, he was annoying and stuffy, but he was one of the best lancers and cavalrymen at the Officer’s Academy. What he lacked in height and brute strength in comparison to Sylvain, he made up for in agility, speed, and precision. He had even given Dimitri a run for his money in the previous tournament. The same couldn’t be said for Sylvain who – whilst certainly skilled – lacked discipline and had the tendency to be sloppy when on foot, often missing his mark.

So, imagine Hilda’s surprise when she turned her eyes back to the pit and came to the slow realisation that today Ferdinand and Sylvain were evenly matched. She gasped in horror as Sylvain effortlessly met Ferdinand’s blows with his own lance, a smug grin plastered upon his face as he dodged and danced around his opponent. Ferdinand’s face on the other hand was scrunched up in a fury that she had never seen on him wear before. He was so composed, refined, and elegant as Lorenz would usually say. Speaking of Lorenz, Hilda caught him standing at the opposite end of the circle, posturing disapprovingly at the sight before him.

Leonie was right. Ferdinand _was_ going to lose. He had let an unbridled anger that Sylvain must have baited him into get the better of him as he rushed at his opponent with reckless abandon.

“Don’t blink,” Leonie said with glee, “its coming.”

Leonie didn’t have to tell her twice, there was no way Hilda was going to tear her eyes from the sight that beheld her. Seeing Ferdinand so angry, let alone losing, would give her ample opportunity to lord over Ferdinand and Lorenz with glee if they tried to lecture her about training properly again.

Just as Leonie predicted, the moment came: Ferdinand lunged forward with his lance, arched far too high for comfort, and Sylvain took advantage of Ferdinand’s wasted movement to create an opening and land the finishing blow. With a loud, almost gruesome, thwack Ferdinand had doubled over onto his knees. Sylvain had given him a hard blow in the ribs with the edge of his lance.

“Overkill.” Hilda muttered under her breath as the crowd rippled into a mixture of raucous applause and jeering.

Sylvain took a long moment to drink in his victory with a smuggest of grins as Ferdinand remained doubled over on the ground in pain. Lorenz had rushed to his side to check on his friend, but Ferdinand had swatted him as if he were nothing more than a fly. His famous noble pride had clearly been wounded by a notoriously lesser man in every sense of the word.

Leonie stretched her arms and sighed, “Well, that was actually more boring than I thought it’d be. I’m pretty sure I could best them both in a duel, crests and all, especially with that crappy performance from Mr High ‘n’ Mighty himself.” She turned towards Hilda, “I mean, you certainly could. You could take them both at once.”

“I’d rather not.” Hilda said sourly, her eyes still fixed on the image of Ferdinand crumpled on the dusty floor of the training grounds.

Somehow, she found it difficult to celebrate Ferdinand’s loss. Was it because his opponent was Sylvain? The loss didn’t seem fair, and as she looked at the forlorn expression that tormented his brow, she began to feel that it the loss was something more than just wounded pride to Ferdinand.

The crowd came to a murmur as Sylvain approached Ferdinand with an outstretched hand, his arrogant grin still plastered across his face as if he were some kind of Cheshire cat. Ferdinand looked up for him at a moment – his face now turned away from Hilda – before taking the victor’s hand as he was helped up from his spot on the ground. Whispers erupted in the crowd as Ferdinand seemed to shake Sylvain’s hand with sincerity, congratulating him on his performance and victory in a low tone. The victor smacked Ferdinand on the back in a friendly way, not letting go of his hand, before pulling him into one of his overly familiar hugs. Hilda noticed that he seemed to whisper something in Ferdinand's ear. 

At the sight, Leonie began to turn away towards the exit, believing things had settled down now, and Hilda reluctantly followed behind her, a feeling of unease in the pit of her stomach as she tore her eyes away from Sylvain whispering into Ferdinand's ear.

“Boring,” a random spectator in the crowd that Hilda could not locate remarked, “I thought things were going to be more dramatic.”

As if right on cue, a loud cracking sound echoed throughout the training pit, resonating with the terror of bloodlust.

Hilda smacked herself in the face with her own pigtails as she whipped her neck around back to the fighting pit: Ferdinand had snapped his lance over his thigh with a violent fury. Sylvain, now two meters away, seemed to be frozen in place with a mixture of shock and fear. Not a trace of the arrogant grin he had adorned just moments before was left on his face.

“How dare you, Gautier!” Ferdinand thundered as he discarded the broken pieces of his lance and wrestled Sylvain to the dusty floor.

“Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawl!” a voice, that Hilda could only attribute to Caspar, roared as the mob erupted into a cheering and jeering frenzy, obscuring Hilda’s view of the fight that had broken out before her.

Leonie grabbed Hilda’s wrist as they tried to push their way forward to get a better hold of the situation at hand. Both girls gasped as they broke through the throng of excited students and saw Ferdinand, left cheek already bruising and nose bloody, atop Sylvain who was equally worse for wear with a busted eye and lip. Ferdinand had Sylvain by the collar and was shaking him violently whilst shouting something inaudible, over the sounds of the crowd, at him.

Leonie raised her voice above the din, “We have to stop this!”

As much as Hilda hated getting her hands dirty, she couldn’t help but nod in agreement as she began to roll up the sleeves of her uniform, if this went on for any longer someone would get seriously hurt. The situation might even escalate to war between House Aegir and House Gautier, and since there seemed to be no sign of any of the Professors (the students must have taken advantage of the fact that it was time for their monthly meeting) so it was up to Hilda and Leonie to take it on themselves to end this brawl.

Hilda snatched Ferdinand back by the collar as he readied his fist and made way for Sylvain’s nose. He might have been a head taller than her, but he was as light as a rag doll in Hilda’s arms. The crowd booed as Leonie brought Sylvain to his feet, before kicking him back down again as he tried to lunge at Ferdinand, she brought him to his knees, pressing down on his shoulders with her weight as she restrained him. The crowd erupted into laughter at the sight of the two bloodied boys being handled like dolls by Hilda and Leonie.

“You are so fucking pussy whipped!” Sylvain shouted above the laughter and the crowd went silent.

The girls exchanged quizzical looks at each other from the across pit.

“Are you fucking insane? Attacking me like that because of a joke? You disgust me!”

Ferdinand scoffed, “ _I_ disgust _you_ , Gautier? You that is everything base and debauched about the nobility! How dare you speak of a lady in such a manner. But I suppose there’s nothing else to expect from a man as notorious as you for chasing girls and manipulating them into sleeping with you.”

Hilda’s jaw dropped as the crowd gasped in collective shock. Every word that Ferdinand said was true, everyone knew it. It made it extremely hard to empathise with Sylvain even though he was the one who had been attacked and bore the most injuries.

Especially if Ferdinand had attacked him for the reason that Hilda was beginning to suspect…It was so unlike him to resort to violence in other situations.

Leonie sighed and pushed her weight further down onto Sylvain who was seething with anger, “I think both of you could do with a nice time out. How about everyone else clears outta here and heads on back to their – ”

“Don’t act like your better than me, Aegir,” Sylvain spat as he cut Leonie off, “Everyone here as seen the way you behave with Dorothea. We’re the same.”

The crowd of students let a collective, salacious " _Ouh"_.

“Now things are getting interesting.” The same voice that had professed boredom before exclaimed.

“Careful, Gautier,” Ferdinand struggled against Hilda’s iron clad grip, “if you so much as utter Dorothea’s name again I shall free your mouth from your vulgar tongue!”

Sylvain smirked at Ferdinand with a gloating pride despite being held down on his knees by Leonie. Although he had just been publicly threatened, he seemed entirely unphased. As if he revelled in riling Ferdinand up at Dorothea’s expense. After all, everyone knew about their not-relationship: it was the talk of the entire school – they had been taking tea regularly together for weeks, when suddenly they weren’t. Rumours had it that the last time they had been seen together Dorothea was running out of Ferdinand’s room in tears.

Well, fuck rumours, Hilda thought to herself.

She usually loved a bit of gossip, as long as it was harmless, but this wasn’t. This was disgusting. It made her angry. And by the fact that Leonie had now sunk her elbow deep into the base of Sylvain’s neck, it seemed that she was angry too. She was relieved. It would make dealing with the aftermath of the situation easier if she had an ally.

How crass. How dare he. Everyone knew Sylvain was garbage, but Dorothea always seemed to get it so much worse than he ever did when it came to nasty gossip.

Hilda’s blood was boiling. She was tempted to set Ferdinand free so that he could punch the pretentious grin off of Sylvain’s face. Better yet, she’d do it herself. This was the one time she wouldn’t mind getting down and dirty: one kick of her foot to Sylvain’s face and he’d be out cold for a good day. That should give him enough time to think over the impact of his behaviour.

But before Hilda could give into her desire, the training grounds’ doors were flung open with a loud clang. Seteth stood at the entrance, an unreadable look on his face as he took in the situation before them, Lorenz was at his side glaring down at everyone in disgust. The Archbishop's aide descended the steps carefully, parting the circle of the students without a word as he centred himself between Ferdinand and Sylvain. Hilda and Leonie slowly let go of their respective captives moving backwards to show that they were guiltless and only trying to diffuse the situation.

“Alright,” Seteth said firmly, “Would anyone like to explain to me what is going on here?”

Sylvain rose to his feet, his smirk still firmly plastered onto his face, “The Aegir heir is a sore loser: I beat him fair and square in a duel and he retaliated by breaking his lance and attacking me.”

Seteth turned to Ferdinand who stood tall: his shoulders straight, his back erect, even with his bloodied appearance and torn clothes he still represented the very image of propriety.

“That doesn’t sound like you Ferdinand, is that true?”

“I can understand why it may appear that way to a bystander,” Ferdinand said in cool voice.

Hilda shuddered. He was calm. Too calm. That violent rage that had possessed him before had subsided into something even more frightening.

“But I would advise the Gautier heir to watch his tongue in the future. He seems to think it is acceptable to provoke someone by insulting the dignity of a lady whom – I might add – is not even here to defend herself from his slander.”

Hilda felt the crowd shift awkwardly at Ferdinand’s words. She knew that everyone in the room, at one point or another, had partaken in what Ferdinand was condemning (even if it wasn’t about the person he was referring to). 

Seteth folded their arms at their chest, they seemed to have understood the situation.

“Agreed, gossip and slander are reprehensible activities. However, retaliating with such violence is also unacceptable. We can talk about correct behaviour in my office.”

The authority and confidence that Ferdinand had previously exuded seemed to disappear from him at the tone of Seteth’s voice, he hung his head solemnly, “I apologise, Seteth, I will gladly receive whatever punishment you deem fit.”

The Professor shifted on their heels and nodded, “You too, Sylvain. Don’t think you’re going to get off easy, either, I’ve had about enough of your behaviour.”

Sylvain began to protest but Seteth silenced him with a motion of his hand.

Some laughter escaped from the crowd and Seteth flashed a glare, “As for the rest you,” they said an authoritative tone, “if I somehow here of this incident being discussed about again, that’ll be a week’s worth of cleaning the monastery gutters. Do you understand?”

The crowd professed their understanding in unison before awkwardly filing out of the training ground. Hilda and Leonie trailed a little behind them, whilst Ferdinand and Sylvain were left alone with the Professor.

“This is bad,” Leonie whispered to Hilda as soon as they were out of the training grounds and earshot, “and not for those two punks.”

“Let’s split up and look for her,” Hilda said in agreement, “you and I both know that the Professor’s threat isn’t going to work. There were just too many people.”

“Its better if she hears it directly as opposed to in the hallways.”

“Hopefully, it will hurt less.”

The two girls groaned. Breaking the news to Dorothea certainly wasn’t going to be easy.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it would be fun to write a Ferdithea fic that was from another character's perspective, and who better than Miss Hilda? I love her character. She's so indolent and lazy, but she definitely strikes me as the type of person to throw hands when someone treats her friends badly. I also thought it would be interesting to deal with how other characters see the relationship between Ferdie and Dorothea especially considering that they're the type to get the rumour mill a-rollin'. 
> 
> I wrote it on a bit of a whim. Its a bit of a fantasy of mine to see Ferdinand throw down with Sylvain. If they had support it definitely wouldn't get past B because they'd hate each other intensely. Ferdinand definitely finds Sylvain's type utterly deplorable. I also wanted to explore the violent temper that Ferdinand is shown to have in his supports with Caspar and Mercedes whenever he sees injustice (people getting scammed, women get treated bad) so who else to get that temper going than Sylvain.
> 
> This one's a bit of a breather from all the other Ferdiethea angst, but it does tie in quite nicely with what I have planned next before I move onto their relationship during the War. 
> 
> Hope you like it. Stay safe! Wash your hands!
> 
> UPDATE: 09/08/2020 - After re-reading the fic, I realised Prof. Byleth just didn't fit in the story, and their behaviour was actually much more akin to Seteth so I slyly edited it lmao. I will continue with this series - its not dropped but my life is extremely busy at the moment, so don't give up on me just yet.


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